Instagram Hits 200 Million Monthly Active Users

In an official post on its Tumblr blog, Instagram announced that it has grown to over 200 million monthly active users. This represents a significant milestone for the social media photo sharing application, providing Facebook with another victory in the win column. Some other impressive statistics Instagram shared on the press section of its website illustrate the popularity of this social media platform:

65% of users are from outside the United States, giving Instagram a significant global presence.

20 Billion photos have been shared since Instagram launched back in 2010.

There are over 1.6 Billion likes on a daily basis, which shows that users are highly engaged within the application.

An average of 60 Million photos are posted on a daily basis.

Instagram made headlines throughout 2013 by introducing new features to compete with upstart social media platforms such as Vine and Snapchat. The response has been mixed: Instagram Video is a hugely popular feature, whereas Instagram Direct is seen as inferior to Snapchat’s private photo sharing capabilities. However, it’s clear that the burgeoning social media application is here to stay, especially as major brands begin to incorporate it within marketing activities alongside Facebook and Twitter. A couple of years ago, I recall being in a discussion with a colleague over the next social media icon to be featured alongside Facebook and Twitter on general advertisements, commercials, websites, and marketing materials. As we discussed the topic back and forth, we agreed that it would either be Google+ (because Google is just such a dominant entity) or Pinterest (pinning was the new fad back in 2012). Now, I can safely say that Instagram has easily surpassed those two platforms to cement its position as one of the three kings of social media marketing.

Are you an Instagram user? If so, are you actively using the application on a monthly basis?